Bah! Humbug! Rudolph Challenge and Caardvarks Die Cut Challenge

We're getting down to the wire at Bah!Humbug! and I hate to see it end. However, I've got a fab collection of Christmas cards AND the ladies will be returning in January to do it all AGAIN! WooHoo! We're channeling Rudolph this week, (or any deer if you prefer) so I pulled out my Cindy Loo cartridge and went to work. My original plan was to do this all in white with the exception of his little red nose (inspired by Heidi's card HERE) but finally decided a little more red wouldn't hurt. (So funny that I remembered her card as being all white. Hey, I could have thrown in some blue too. LOL) I used the frame cut and layer (something I RARELY use) and then made a card shape by hiding a bunch of contours in DS.

I popped the couple of mats and embossed the background with the Winter Woods folder that was an exclusive from Oh My Crafts. (Looks like it's gone now). Couldn't decide on a sentiment and didn't know exactly where to put it, so I just added a gingham bow (made with my Bow Easy and for once I didn't have to look at the instructions!) Quit laughing, Margie, Marlene understands! I'm also entering this in the Caardvarks Die Cut Challenge which ends today!

Bah!Humbug! Text Challenge and Caardvarks Clean and Simple

WooHoo! I'm recovering from TWO nights of concerts and dinners at Wente Vineyards (Don Henley and Harry Connick Jr.) but I still managed to do the current Bah! Humbug! challenge (before the last minute) which is text. I bought this 3 pack of Christmas text stamps by Hero Arts at M's a least a year ago but hadn't inked them up. I thought they would be perfect for some clean and simple Christmas cards that I could also enter in the current Caardvarks challenge (thanks to Heidi for reminding me and for being about the best example of CAS on the planet) as well. I cut it out with my Nesties Classic Rectangles and then cut a scalloped rectangle out of a white mat. I then embossed it with the Cuttlebug Holly folder. I'm anxious to do more of these with the other two stamps in the set.

I'm really happy with the results, especially after I popped the mat and text and added the few adhesive pearls. They do match a bit better than they appear to in the picture. You can still have a go at both these challenges so pop over to Bah! Humbug! and Caardvarks and take a look at the beautiful inspiration from the DT members.

The Cuttlebug Spot Sketch and Caardvarks Birthday Challenge

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we are using a sketch designed by our own Aymee and it's our choice of theme. I changed it up a bit (I'm so proud of myself because I'm usually too intimidated to switch anything out, LOL) I used the birthday candles folder from the Cuttlebug Birthday Greeting Card Making Combo and the large dots are a Quickutz folder. The adorable birthday girl is a Pure Innocence digi image from Heather Ellis. She's colored with Copics and cut out with Nesties and popped. The sentiment is computer generated. The border punch is Martha Stewart and love how it embosses as well. Be sure to pop over to The Cuttlebug Spot and take a look at the rest of the Design Team's interprtation of this fabulous sketch and why not have a go of it?

I'm also entering this card in the Caardvarks Birthday Challenge. They are helping My Favorite Things celebrate their 4th birthday. WooHoo! I recently became a real fan of MFT after winning a challenge at Oh Alice! They have fabulous stamps (among other things) and Pure Innocence is one of their lines. Happy birthday MFT and here's wishing you many, MANY more!

The Cuttlebug Spot Sketch Challenge and Caardvarks Embossing Challenge

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we have a lovely sketch to work with from our very talented DT member Aymee. I was lucky enough to have a gorgeous new stamp set from Sweet Pea Stamps that I was dying to play with. I thought it would go perfectly with my FAVE K&Co paper so I heat embossed it in black on cream cardstock. (I almost NEVER heat emboss but I'm SOOO PLEASED at how it came out!) Conveniently, the Caarvaarks June challenge is wet or dry embossing so WooHoo for that!

The long vertical strip is embossed with the Textile Texture embossing folder and I used a Martha Stewart border punch along the edge. I didn't think that was enough embossing, so I embossed the card front itself with the Limited edition Butterflies folder from Crafts Too I got at Custom Crops. Because it was smaller than the card front, I then used a border from the Organic Flourish border set to fill in the gap at the other edge.

I used my Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die to make the flowers. This Bigz Die works just fine in the Cuttlebug by removing your A plate and replacing it with a B plate. Then use the die, cardstock and another B plate. I spritzed the flowers with water and crumpled them, let them dry, uncrumpled and VOILA! Please be sure to visit The Cuttlebug Spot to see the lovely creations by my DT sisters, and we'd love it if you'd play along. I was sooo happy to see last week's particpation.

Caardvarks Wedding Card Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day has been full of love. I thought I'd sneak this quick wedding card in for the Caardvarks challenge. I love the sophisticated color combo of ivory and taupe and I think the clean and simple design is quite elegant. Now off to Valentine's dinner. WooHoo!

Card recipe:

Card size: 5 x 6 1/4

Card Stock: Recollections and Prima Marketing

Embossing folders: Cuttlebug Flourish Frame Provo Craft, Wedding Set #2 Sizzix

Flowers: Bride's magazine table confetti embossed ivory shimmer

Adhesive pearls: Recollections

A Monochromatic Fall, TCS, Paper Blooms and Caardvarks

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we have a monochromatic color challenge. It's really beginning to feel like Fall here so I got out the orange box of paper and started to play. Honestly, they ARE all oranges, but didn't exactly photograph as such). I decided to try the weaving technique for the background and chose 3 shades and cut paper in a variety of widths to make it a bit more interesting. Then I taped the edges and ran it through the Cuttlebug using D'Vine Swirls which this season makes me think of swirling leaves. I really love the effect. The mat is done with one of the new 5 x 7 Cuttlebug folders exclusive to Oh My Crafts. The opening and frame is with my Labels One Nesties.

I love the Cuttlebug pumpkin cut and emboss set and added a number of leaves, some punched, some Nesties, cuttled with Swiss Dots, Herringbone, and the small dotted folder from the butterfly set. The corners are Sizzix. The metallic leaf brads and pearls are from M's.

I still managed to get a bit of dimension, and isn't that ribbon YUMMY!? It came on one of those teeny spools so I've GOT to go look for some more of it, although I'm not sure if it was from J's, or M's. I'll certainly be on the hunt. For this reason I decided to enter it in the Caardvark's Take a Bow challenge which is to use ribbon in a wonderful way. Their sponsor is May Arts which has THE MOST GORGEOUS RIBBON IMAGINABLE!!!!! I CRAVE their stuff BIG TIME!!!! One of my other favorite challenge sites, Paper Blooms, is also having a monochromatic color challenge this week. I really hoped to do another monochromatic card for them featuring Leah's GORGEOUS hand crocheted flowers, but just in case I don't have a chance to I'll be entering this there as well.

This may have been my favorite Cuttlebug Spot Challenge yet and it sure looks like my Design Team Sisters agree. Their projects are FABULOUS! So hop on over to The Cuttlebug Spot, take a look, and play along. I'll see you there.

Caardvark's "Tree's a Crowd" Challenge

Happy Earth Day! I decided this was the perfect day to work on the current challenge over at Caardvarks. I had a new Cottage Cutz tree die from The Scrapping Cottage and was dying to use it. I originally planned to do something all Springy and floral when I came upon my rather neglected Green Stack from DCWV. PERFECT! How more Earth friendly could I get? I'm afraid I'm rather stuck on these popped frames lately but I couldn't help using my Labels 1 Nesties set. The colors turned out to be fairly masculine so I restrained myself on the embellies and chose not to use a sentiment to keep it versatile but all in all I don't think it turned out half bad.

The Cuttlebug Spot "Shape It" Challenge and Caardvaark's "Good Knight" challenge

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we were asked to do a card with any shape other than square or rectangle. I have been dying to use the adorable Knight outfit for my Boo for You bear die so I designed a castle shaped card using Cricut Design Studio and the Doodlecharms cartridge.

I used Tim Holtz's grunge paper for the castle which is thinner than grunge board but still really flexible and cuts and embosses like a dream. I embossed the castle walls with the Tiny Mosaic Cuttlebug folder and the turret roofs with Diamonds in the Rough. They were inked and sponged with distress and chalk inks and metallic acrylic paint daubers and popped for dimension. Boo is and his outfit are dies from GoKreate, a UK company available in the U.S. at The Scrapping Cottage. "Celebrate"is an adhesive metallic sentiment I found in the $ bin at M's. It was so great creating a card for a male that wasn't a chore. LOL

Inside I used the Cuttlebug die from the Birthday Wishes combo with the knight's sword for the exclamation point. It just so happens that the Caardvark's challenge is "Good Knight" a fantasy theme. I think this fills the bill. Be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot to see the other wonderful shaped cards my Design Team sisters have created and please come and play along.

Bombshell Stamps V-Day Contest. Cardvaark's Heart Challenge (Are you Shocked? HeeHee)

Quite different for me, don't you think? LOL First of all I must say I'm not much of a stamper but when I saw these stamps I was bound and determined. This sassy image is from Bombshell Stamps. They have the cheekiest collection of stamps I've ever seen. I LOVE THEM! Not only the images, but for some reason I had much better luck with them than with many I've tried. (Maybe I was just motivated, but I really think the quality is great.) Also, when I showed the images to DH he told me to buy some (OMG! Are you kidding? How often does that happen when shopping for craft supplies?) Anyway, they're having a Valentine contest so I thought I'd give it a go. Also since I first became aware of Bombshell Stamps when Debbie won the Jan 1 Cardvaarks' Sketch Challenge using an adorable cowgirl image (scroll down to the bottom of this Cardvaarks' post to see it. It's on my wish list) I thought I'd use hearts and enter it there as well.

This image is perfect for DH since he gave me the nastiest (in a good way, LOL) pair of red spikes for Christmas. I wasn't pleased with the color of the shoe when I used the MCPT technique (and unfortunately I don't have Copics) so I decided to stamp again on red foil cardstock (using StazOn) and cut it out. Then I ended up cutting out the Bombshell as well as her leg, arm, and selected other parts again and popped them for dimension (of course, see, it IS still me here). Used Nesties for the hearts (also popped), foam glitter hearts, adhesive rubies and a diamond (on her finger). "What a girl really wants" is part of the stamp set, and the "is U" are stickers. Inside is X-Rated. LOL OOps! Just went to enter my card and realized it didn't have a ribbon so I added one to the heel.

More Cherries, Caardvarks Dot challenge and Day 27

I was extremely motivated to get caught up on Jen's card a day challenge so I went back to my new Hello Kitty cartridge and started playing with the cherries again. Although there is a card feature for the cherries on the cartridge, it is not using the shadow feature so the actual writing part inside is VERY small. To remedy that I designed my own using Design Studio and the shadow feature so I'd have plenty of space. The weird thing about this cartridge is the sizing of the shadow is much larger than the regular cut so the card is welded at 4" but the actual cherry parts are cut at 4 1/2". Also there was still enough room for a second shadow (the black and white polka dot) so I tweaked a 3 3/4" shadow to fit appropriately. Of course I chalked, doodled and popped the cherries (oooh, that didn't quite sound right LOL) and added a gingham bow. I love how bright and cheery it turned out. We're on the home stretch of this January challenge and I again thank Jen for giving me the motivation to keep going. Thanks also for reminding of the polka dot challenge over at Caardvarks. I'm there! Be sure and stop by her BLOG and say Hi. Whew! I'm gonna need a vacation when this is done but there are some new and exciting things for me in the works in February so I can't wait.

Caardvarks Jan 1 sketch "Snow Day"

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try some sketch challenges so when I saw this one from Caardvarks on Jen's blog it looked like one I could manage. It was designed by the talented Becky Fleck of Pagemaps. For some reason though I really had a tough time measuring these blocks and gluing them down right this morning so to camouflage some less than perfect margins I decided to do a bit of distressing and tilted the mats somewhat as well. I kinda like the shabby look. LOL The patterned paper came from Bety's Dream Designs and when I saw it it made me think of my BFF Becky in MI who was home on a "snow day" last time I talked to her. Sure wish we were curled up by the fire chatting and sipping tea (or wine depending on the time of day LOL) while the flakes were flying outside. I miss her sooooo much! The other two blocks I cuttled with Swiss dots and the snowflake folders. The large snowflake is also Cuttlebug with a circle punch, 2 foam flakes and a mini heart brad by Queen & Co. on top. I used fine jute to tie on the hand cut tag with the rub on from Cosmo Cricket. This is card #3 for Jen's "card a day challenge". Check out what she's doing HERE and try playing along. She won't mind a late comer.